Coming Together

Another busy week so far, on Monday I was able to get to the white cemetery and finish collecting the data. The idea of taking photos of the markers was one of the best ideas I could have thought of when it comes to saving time. What would normally be an all day affair took on a few hours, and through photo it is in fact easier to see what is on the marker. This cemetery however was much harder to collect data from. While the other one had graves in various places and in rough conditions, many of the graves were legible. The trouble I ran into in the white cemetery was the material of the marker. Many of them were marble, the problem with marble is that it tends to get dirty if it is not taken care of. Also due to weather over the years it can ware down the stone to where it makes it almost impossible to read due to it turning smooth. That was the main problems I ran into while collecting my pictures. The main marker material used in the other cemetery tended to be either a metal marker or granite. Which are much easier to collect data from because it does not wear down for a long while. I did run into some of the same problems as I did the other cemetery in which sometimes the grave is a few feet under ground. When that happens I have to literally dig it out, the most buried  one I came across was under a few inches of dirt which was not too bad. I did have a volunteer come with me, and while they took the photo I would be prepping the graves for their photo opt. As I was collecting the data I realized that their were quite a few family plots. Many of them were lined with marble with a small entry way. After the pictures were taken and the cemetery completed I began my input into the spreadsheet I created. By no means have I completed with this cemetery, In a few days I will be and I will write the major differences or similarities I find if any. I did however finish the data entry from the first cemetery I collected data from. What I saw in the data was that many of the graves had religious iconography, specifically Christianity. The typical symbols I would come across were crosses, roses, flowers, grapevines, but mainly prayer hands. Other symbolism I found was some Freemason symbols and Order of the Eastern Star symbolism. What I found that was interesting was that if their was a shared grave and the husband was a Freeman the wife was a member of the Order of the Eastern Star. Many other the ones that were Freemasons were also part of the Order of the Eastern Star as well. The other thing that I have been working on this week is my rewrites that I mentioned last week. I have not yet been able to write them to my liking. I am being a bit picky with my wording. I am also learning on how to create my poster, and working on updating my CV, it is a bit too empty for my liking, but I am starting out. I realize that I may not have an impressive one now, but I will eventually with my continuation of volunteer work over the summer. For next week I will hope to have a draft completed from what my poster will look like.

The white cemetery that I collected data from, it had much more tree coverage then the other cemetery. It also had a better location, while the other one was off a State road, this one was located behind a neighborhood.

Came across a few of these when I got to some family plots, the carving of the marble was done with a great amount to detail, on the grave you can see the family name. On the other side of it it has the names of those buried inside, sometimes a few, and sometimes only one person is buried in it.